Case Study: Julia Creek Dirt & Dust Festival
Julia Creek, based in McKinlay Shire, has hosted the Dirt & Dust Festival since its modest beginnings. It all began in 1994 from a couple of locals spinning yarns over the bar, coming up with ways to put Julia Creek on the map. Today’s event brings together people from all walks of life and each year the Committee aims to reproduce the highlights of the previous years and add new attractions to continually showcase the town, its people and the true Aussie Outback.
The Dirt and Dust Festival is organised by a non-profit organisation run by a small group of volunteer committee members and a part-time event coordinator. In 2006 and 2007 the community was rewarded by the Festival taking out the Outback Queensland Tourism's Award for Significant Festivals and Events category and Tourism Queensland’s Excellence in Innovation award.
A formal marketing plan is in place, identifying what will be done, when, and who is responsible for doing it. Marketing tools used to attract the 1500 – 2000 people who attend the annual festival include:
- Internet site
- Newsletters and publications
- Stationery – promotion on letterheads, envelopes, etc
- Advertising
- Publicity, media releases and special promotions
- Speeches and presentations
- Word of mouth
The effectiveness or otherwise of the marketing tools is monitored (including media coverage) and evaluated through a thorough debriefing, surveys and sponsors’ feedback sheets.
Marketing the Dirt and Dust Festival 2007
500 A3 posters were distributed throughout Queensland Tourism outlets, Service Stations and Post Offices. A proven method of success with posters was to get the local community to send a poster to a friend.
10,000 A4 colour flyers similar to the poster were sent to Caravan Parks, Tourism Outlets and Motels in the region. These were also inserted into the Country Life publication. 10,000 regional brochures were produced to “value add” and on-sell the region to the world. This initiative created a lot of support within the region and gave the event the leverage to attract a diverse audience.
The actual power of the media has been recognised by the organising committee and the increase in attendance is believed to be a direct result of the lead-up stories in regional newspapers.
Two television campaigns were undertaken - one with IMPARJA which ran for three weeks, comprising a 30 second advertisement including the event dates, sponsors and entertainment. The other was a direct call to action with WIN TV with the target market being the Townsville region. The radio commitment from sponsor 4LM, as in previous years, was deemed a very successful campaign. This ran for four weeks prior to the event and included a radio commercial, outside live broadcast at the event itself, in addition to various interviews and follow ups. Further support was provided by ABC Mount Isa and Longreach, which played an important role in updating the program of events and giving listeners continual updates as they came to hand.
Through the ongoing support from Tourism Queensland the Festival was able to entice media to the event, which ensured there was a professional photographer to provide quality photos for post print stories and future marketing. For the first time the Festival attracted National TV Coverage through Channel Seven’s SUNRISE program, Triple J Radio and ABC stories that ran nationally.
Representation from newspapers such as the North Queensland Register, North West Star, Northern Miner and Townsville Bulletin was also prevalent over the weekend. Follow up stories were placed in papers after the event with most achieving front page headline articles. Longreach ABC gave the Festival further exposure with the inclusion of a detailed report on the ABC Website.
www.dirtndust.com
Information provided by Margie Ryder, Event Manager and the Julia Creek Dirt and Dust Festival Event Report 2007
Image: Bog Races, Julia Creek Dirt and Dust Festival 2008 | Photo: Trevor Oendock